two great divisions, and bear the name of temperament. The infantine constitution when left to nature, continues the same through life: thus in lusty persons predominance of sanguine fluids; in thin persons, predominance of nervous fluids ; and the most enlightened care is necessary to effect any change in a constitution naturally unhealthy.

Childhood is the proper time to improve, and purify a vitiated constitution; the human body may be compared to the cells of a beehive, intended to contain nourishment and physical agents: the body receives all the materials deposited in the cells of its tissues, and these materials, according to their different qualities, will either strengthen or weaken the organization, and assist or prevent its development.

The blood is the life of the flesh; if the blood possess all its normal properties, the organs expand, the face is animated, the muscles are powerful, the whole body is in full strength and beauty; while, if the blood be poor, containing more aqueous fluids than in its natural state, a lymphatic predominance exists; weakness ensues, accompanied by great paleness, and a sort of atony, which demonstrate the insufficiency of nutritive materials for the general development of the whole body.

If the heart and the circulating blood vessels are in full activity, says Richerand, the complexion is florid, the countenance animated, the

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body well shaped. The qualities of the mind are not less striking: persons of a sanguine constitution have a brilliant imagination, retentive memory, and quickness of conception, seldom disturbed by illness.

But when the blood is aqueous, the circulation irregular, the palpitation of the heart unusually quick, the functions are slow in their action, the face is pale, the eyes sunken, the legs are weak, the constitution lymphatic. Young persons thus affected are averse to exercise, and fall into a state of melancholy, which may bring them to an untimely end.

Children born with a sanguine constitution grow up well; while, on the contrary, those with a lymphatic constitution, are not easily reared.

Nervous constitutions are also subjected to modifications, having a decided action on the feelings, passions, and intellectual faculties of individuals. This constitution is often the privilege of true-born genius; but the precious gift is too frequently counterbalanced by a fatal predisposition to cerebral diseases and nervous affections. How much care and attention are requisite not to shake these sensitive organizations, when the slightest revolution may bring on convulsions and cause sudden death!

The most essential point, therefore is, to become acquainted with children's constitutions; this knowledge is the basis of physical education. That either all intellects, or constitutions, can be

brought to a level, is a paradox contradicted by mere observation. Common physical education is only calculated for organizations without any striking predominance; the same as public intellectual education is only suited to ordinary minds, which, according to Gall, are indifferent to surrounding objects, and leave every thing unnoticed. For these sort of individuals, deficient in taste, wanting feeling, and shewing no decided inclination for any particular undertaking, general instructions may be well adapted.

Let due importance be given to the constitution, as a foundation for the edifice. It is the primitive matter which should be carefully preserved, if healthy; if not, it must be purified in early life. We shall now proceed to consider constitutions under two separate heads, hereditary and acquired.

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CHAP. IV.

Hereditary Constitutions.

SOME authors have denied the existence of hereditary constitutions, and yet believed in predispositions. It is by no means our intention to make any comment on so striking a contradiction; we shall merely observe, that we agree with the majority of scientific men in thinking that daily observation leaves no doubt as to the fact of hereditary diseases.

If the laws of nature be always regular; if a child resemble its parents in features and disposition; if the same race of men be preserved through whole generations, when no accidental causes chance to degenerate it; why should not the paternal or maternal constitution be transmitted, whether it be sound or not.

The Bramins, says Alp Leroy, in point of goodness, beauty, and intellect, are far superior to all other Indians; and they form alliances in every cast likely to improve their posterity. What can be more striking than the Jewish countenance, transmitted from generation to generation. Notwithstanding the vicissitudes to which the Jews have been subjected, neither their language nor customs have undergone any

change. Among the Romans some families were called Nasones, Labeones, owing to certain hereditary affections.

The shape, size, and general resemblance, are undoubtedly hereditary, says Récamier; why, therefore, should not particular likenesses be hereditary, which is the case in certain families. Cullen, in his Practical Medicine, quotes an example of the father of a family who had the king's evil; all the children who bore resemblance to him, were also affected with it, while those like the mother, were perfectly healthy.

Experience and analogy, according to Baudelocque, concur to prove the predisposition to scrofula to be hereditary; but does this hereditary predisposition inevitably bring on the disease? We by no means think so; its development, must be the consequence of some particular action uniting with the predisposition; and this amounts to saying, that a foreign agent is necessary to the development of scrofula. Thus hereditary diseases exist, and the maladies transmitted, appear when the constitution undergoes some accidental shock; and they are on the contrary, modified by judicious and enlightened medical treatment.

What is the predisposition to certain affections? Is it not a particular state of the constitution; a sort of diathesis? And what is a diathesis? Those who do not acknowledge hereditary constitutions,